A "Personal Thoughts" thread on my experiences so far ^_^.

Darkfalz89

So as I'm sure you all may know from all the "So its been a month...." and "What do you guys think of the game so far e.t.c." threads that have been popping up almost hourly on the site. I kind of snooped around and looked at a thread that lists some of my thoughts of the game thus far with no luck, so that being said I apologize if this is one of "Those Threads". After a month of  guild wars 2 I can gladly say it was quite the enjoyable one. Coming from Guild Wars I noticed the game has definitely become more seamless and open and quite enjoyable to explore thus far. I really wouldnt call this a review but more of a personal thoughts dump, in which your all more than welcome to pipe in whenever you feel like ^_^. 

 

As far as characters my roster includes : 39 ENG 30 WAR 5 RNG(Ranger) and 24 MSM(Mesmer).

 

Engineer was the first class I leveled and was the class that I felt described my playstyle to a Tee. This quickly fell in enjoyment due to the lack of syngergy with any of our core weapons + turrets. I kinda expected engineer in WAR i guess and was greatly disappointed by the lack of mechanics when it came to turret engineer (Buffs when standing next to your turrets/effects when standing close/passives and/or more synergy with rifle or dual pistols or reduced turret placement cooldowns when going down the invention tree e.t.c.) as far as both PVE and PVP. Since both interactions with evironment and other players tend to be fast paced and very mobile, your 30/60+s cooldown timers on placing turrets got very annoying very quickly. While this remains very powerful when capturing points in SPvP, this is but ONE way to utilize this.The idea of picking up your turrets after an engagement would of done well if your cooldown got lowered yet all it did was start your coodown early. Engineer became very meh for me after that. 

 

Warrior was a great deal of fun and I loved sticking 4 signets on me with the +Precision trait and watch as 89% of all my 100 blades animation Crit and just annihilated everything that stood before me, elite or not. Watching the crits roll by with my rifle in the mists with that crit rate was just rediculous and fun at the same time xD. However pressing one button became very repetitive and boring since warrior just felt too much about passive skills and less about anything else, which becomes boring when you consider how many skills you have on some classes (NOT ALL!!!). This was when i was introduced to condition damage+ mace/shield and 2H hammer, which was fun and had lots of CC but paled in comparison to the 100 blades/bleed setup i made. Having all the skills unlocked that i needed at level 15 didnt really give me any motivation to keep playing warrior so 30 is as far as i got.

The idea of mesmer is very intuative and very different from any class Ive played other than of course Thaumaturge from DaoC . Although the premise and playstyle was quite fun the class just felt too "Built for PvP" with the many evades/blocks/parries/and copies which made PvE fighting very cumbersome (keep in mind I only got to 21 when I just coudlnt take it anymore) so 21 is as far as that went.

 

I got necromancer to 15 and deleted it because I just really didnt like the playstyle. Was it because I enjoyed the GW1 Nec more or was it that I've been jaded by the awesomeness of the abilties and playstyle of the Necro in AOC? I like pet builds and greatly enjoyed decking out my pet setup but I just couldnt find anything that synergized well with pet summoning that I found fun (no weapon combination for necro did I find interesting....) so 15 is as far as I went. 

 

I really didnt give Ranger a chance because I just really didnt like any of their utility/elite skills and the class was nothingdiferent than ranger that I played in any other game (other than dual axes did play well and loved 2hander sword but was greatly jaded since i played 2h warrior first xD.

 

Originally I only got my engineer to 24 as per my reasons in listed earlier but then I started playing with 10 explosives (Bleed on crit) with 10 on Marks (20% reduced cooldowns on pistol/rifle e.t.c.) and pumping the rest into apoth for the B pot at 75% health ^_^ and found that I greatly understimated the passives of apoth. WIthout the bonus to boon duration and reduced C/D elixers felt meh, but making them an extention to your arsenal while showering the target with conditions via dual pistol revitalized the lack of insterest in any class in GW2 that I had. 

 

Throughout my journey through the world of Tyria I was met with repeated frustrations of being constantly underleveled that greatly hampered my enjoyment. I know the common responses will be "you didnt do all the events/hearts or "you didnt do a little of everything pvp/crafting/e.t.c." but your answer is yes, yes i did. Ive kept Leatherworker AND Huntsman at the same level of my engineer, constantly pumping out weapons and amor (which even involved me grinding specific mobs for drops so i could continue since the AH was down like 24/7...... since launch T______T. I pvped very often but eventually when all the level 80's started sprouting the enjoyment of small engagements it became ever clear the gap I had between my weak 30+ engi vs the impenetrable geared "insert level 80 class name here" despite how genious their bolster system was. A great deal of this was because of how powerful unlocking later tiers of each line was. I understand the scaling of stats were even done for gear, but this didnt include the powerful 200+ of multiple trees of progression gave you so the advantages of traits was greatly understimated and so I just PvE'd. 

 

Level 1-25 it wasnt a problem since I bit the bullet and ran through all the starter zones but after doing 3-4 25-35 and 30-40 zones to just hit 30+ my frustration got the better of me. I have nothing against exploring but at times I felt that I spent more time searching for events/hearts more than I was enjoying the game... Despite this I persevered to 39 and I continued down the beaten path. I just dont know what It is but the pacing for the game feels very off in terms of leveling speed/per zone. I just feel that the game going from a level 20 cap straight to a level 80 cap was a bit much. I would of felt something like a level 40 cap with an alternate advancement system with different skills for PvE and PvP with the respective ways of completing them would of been so much better... With nothing to look forward to at level 80 outside of what Ive already been doing the motivation becomes conflicted with the goal of reaching 80 so i dont get stomped by other 80's in WvW. 

 

I know that this is a F2P game and its a filler to play with another MMO but I guess I was just expecting more. It could just entirely be me for all we know. The rose tinted glasses of the old FFXI days may hold be back from fully enjoying an mmo again. After being buttered up and hyped for every launch post WoW I remained vigilant through all content that slowly trickled from A Net along with their valiant "Its releasing when its ready" statement. I just think that despite all preperation I had, the burnout of failed "Make it Like WoW" cash grabs have greatly worn me down. I look at replay value for GW2 when considering getting my thief up there but after going through just about every zone to just KEEP UP with the games awqward leveling pace I feel as though i've been there and done that... Hopefully with expansions Ill find classes I enjoy playing more and just hope 2.0 doesnt flop as bad as the FFXIV launch. 

To all of those who continue to enjoy this marvelous game, i tip my chalice to you. The thought itself makes me quite envious ^_^.